When I was a teenager one of my most treasured accessories was a Seiko digital watch. It was the zenith of digital watches and the design was ingenious: there were digits, as well as hour and minute hands formed by a liquid crystal display, for another time zone. At the press of a button, there was a world map with all time zones.
It sounds kitschy now but back then it was hot stuff. Digital watches took the world by storm and almost killed off mechanical alternatives. Mechanical watches have made a comeback, but quartz digital watches have also evolved. More materials are available and design has flourished.
For formal and work situations, particularly if you're in the kind of profession that requires you to wear a suit, you need a mechanical watch. No client will take you seriously if you turn up wearing a digital watch. It's even worse if you wear a suit and then a digital watch - it just feels wrong. Sure, Millennials who wear Bermuda shorts to work wouldn't care, but then, who takes Millennials seriously? There are only so many Mark Zuckerbergs among them.
But on a smart-casual Friday, or if you're in a smart-casual kind of job, it would be acceptable to wear a Fossil JR9454 (third from top) with brushed and shiny silver case, black leather strap and black and mirror dial. It is solid, masculine and kind of edgy. It has hour and minute hands as well as a digital display, but the seconds are shown in digits. Or choose DKNY's metallic NY series (second from top) with small organic light-emitting displays, which show that you're tough, modern and a little mysterious.
As fashion accessories for the weekend, digital watches open up a whole new world. If you're a futuristic man, the Diesel DZ (top) series is your statement. It looks like a bracelet but, at the touch of the button, shows the time in red LED digits. It is suitable for the man's man when matched with a black leather strap and the boy-man (a fashionable one anyway) with a silver varnished-leather one.
Philippe Starck's designs haven't swept me off my feet, but the master knows his accessories, as shown in his latest watches under the O-Ring Digi (second from bottom) concept. Characterised by the 'uni-body' that merges the doughnut-shape dial and the strap, the piece shows the time under an acrylic lens, with a digital numeral telling you the hour of the day, and little black blocks forming a circle and showing the minutes. After each full hour the circle disappears to make way for a new one. The piece comes in white, black and orange, making it the quintessential accessory for the man who thinks about what he wears.
